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Sunday, 30 November 2014

This sunday the group of players in Budapest organized the first WASPA tournament in Hungary. Six hungarian and one serbian players played and the tournament was very exciting.

A very nice venue

In the end of the day, everybody played six games and the final ranking of the "WASPA Sante Claus Cup" was as follows:
1. Gábor Baross
2. Róbert Zsigri
3. Milan Knezevic
4. Zoltán Baross
5. Adrián Száki
6. Csaba Laska
7. Bence Dolmányos

Saturday, 29 November 2014

On November 26 the third stage of the WASPA Lazio League 2014/2015 was played in the premises of the host club in Rome. The Swiss system was used and this time the honors were for Simone Trivelli. Trivelli, winner of the WLL last season, was on fire and finished the evening with 10 points. After three wins he drew with Matteo Del Brocco (who finished second). Giuseppe Cascioli finished third, a very good result for him. In the general ranking of the WLL, Giuseppe Cascioli is the leader with 45 points while Patrizio Lazzaretti has 41, Gianmarco Del Brocco and Luigi Aniballi have 40.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

The full contingent. Steve Diasinos holds the Subbuteo Parramatta mascot aloft in victory.

Held to commemorate the end of Subbuteo Parramatta’s first ever league, the League Cup was a one off WASPA Promotional tournament which was opened up for any players who could make it, whether they’d played in the league or not. A few of the league players were unable to play due to work commitments, but a couple of new players were able to come along in their place.

A league was played, though time allowed only 4 of the 5 possible rounds to be played. By the end of the 4 rounds, however, there was a clear cut and deserved winner which the 5th round would not have altered.

The opening fixtures saw the two Italians draw each other. After a couple of tournaments, Daniele is beginning to find his feet again after 20 years off playing while new boy Fabrizio was a completely unknown quantity. It didn’t take long for Fabrizio to lay down the ganutlet, taking an early 2 goal lead with his typically Italian faced paced movement and precise defensive flicking. Once Daniele settled into the groove, however, he was able to even the play up, and eventually pulled a goal back as well, though Fabrizio took out the honours. In the other game, Adrian dominated possession but a combination of poor finishing and good defending meant that Gordy held out until the final minute of play, when Adrian finally managed a shot that Gordy’s ‘keeper was unable to keep out.

The two Steve’s renewed their growing rivalry and, again, the game was a classic. Dettre had the run of play during the first half of the game, though some great ‘keeping from Diasinos, and the woodwork, kept the scores level. Finally, Diasinos’ resolve was broken, however, and Dettre took a deserved lead. This seemed to spark Diasinos into action and he began to control more possession and begin creating his own chances. He soon had an equaliser from a well taken shot from an almost impossible angle to put Dettre on notice. Then, as the final seconds ticked down, a Diasinos corner led to a half chance within a few flicks. Diasinos then proceeded to bury his shot and take his first ever victory over Dettre with virtually the last action of the game. On Table 2, Fabrizio was putting Gordy to the sword, his swift play seeing him rack up 4 unanswered goals.

Diasinos next lined up against Daniele while Dettre took on Adrian. Daniele and Diasinos cancelled each other out, playing out a goalless draw which saw lots of excitement but no scoreboard action. Meanwhile, Dettre and Adrian looked headed in the same direction, even though Dettre was forcing a number of saves from Adrian’s ‘keeper. With 8 seconds left on the clock, though, Dettre got his breakthrough. With Adrian focusing on where Dettre might pass the ball, Dettre surprised him with a shot from an acute angle and Adrian’s ‘keeper could only watch it fly into the back of the net.

The next two games saw two more goalless draws as Daniele and Gordy played out one on one table and Fabrizio and Adrian did the same on the other. Fabrizio’s defensive flicking, in particular, was impeccible, closing down Adrian’s angles time after time and, while he couldn’t break down Adrian’s defenses, his fast movement caused great problems in attack as well creating some good chances.

Diasinos then took on Adrian on Table One. The game was best summed up in Diasinos’ immortal words – “It was as unelegant as 7 dancing elephants!” A sloppy game saw both players persistently go for half chances, miss, then leave themselves exposed. Unfortunately, neither was particularly deadly in building clear cut chances, or even putting the ball out for a goal-kick. The Subbuteo purists would have been appalled as they each seemed to attempt to outdo each other in their poor positional and build up play. Yet again, it came to the final minute where, at last, Diasinos managed a clear shot on goal which he snuck past Adrian’s ‘keeper. Meanwhile, Dettre found the Midas’ Touch on Table Two, with almost every shot sliding past Gordy’s ‘keeper to claim the evening’s biggest win of 5-0.

With finishing time approaching, 4 players were left to complete their fourth games. 1st and 2nd on the points table (separated only by goal difference), Fabrizio and Diasinos were drawn to play head-to-head, while Dettre, sitting just a point behind, could still take the tournament if he could beat Daniele and hope for a draw in the other match. Dettre honoured his end of the bargain and, though made to work for it, especially with Daniele’s ability to hit the woodwork, saw Daniele off with a 2-0 victory. Another epic struggle was brewing on Table One, though. Diasinos took a fairly early lead which seemed to calm his nerves significantly, as well as force Fabrizio to chase the game. And chase he did. On three occassions his quick flicking on the run, saw him through Diasinos’ defense only for Diasinos’ ‘keeper to somehow be in the right place. A couple more shots off the uprights had Diasino thinking it must be his night. Not that Fabrizio had it all his way. As he pushed for the equaliser, Diasinos took advantage of Fabrizio’s lightened defense and had some more chances of his own. The game became a real arm wrestle as both players gave everything but, in the end, Diasinos held out to end the night undefeated and take his first title.

(Report by Adrian Elmer, originally from the Austrlian Association's website)

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

The second stage of the Scottish Circuit took place on November 16 in Glasgow with a good field of 16 players. There were four groups of four with the winner of each group qualifying for the semi-finals and many consolation games. In the end, Steve Bennett took the honors after beating Tom Burns in the final. Bennett is the current leader of the Scottish Circuit with 92 points. Greg Dand is second (88) and Gareth Christie is third (87).

The 1st Cape Town Open was held on November 23 at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. It was organized by the fledgling Cape Town City TFC, but featured two visiting players from Johannesburg. Due to time constraints, playing time was 13 minutes per game. We look forward to growing the game in Cape Town, and specifically to our next tournament on December 21, 2014.

Friday, 21 November 2014

The first official tournament in Indonesia took place in Jakarta on the November 16 with a good turnout of 10 players. Organizers were expecting a few other club members who could not attend due to work commitments. Each game was played in 20 minutes all the way instead of the 30 minutes. Organizers made two groups first and the top four players proceeded to the second stage.

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

There was a tournament played with the old rules "slow play" last friday in Macerata, Italy. 18 players were competing in Swiss system and after the main stage, semi-finals were organized between the four leaders. Alberto Gagliardi finally took the honors, beating Stefano Gambella in the final (3-1). Pantanetti and Mattioli took the third and fourth places.

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

The Augusta Subbuteo Open took place on November 7 with a good field of seven entries in the Open tournament. Craig Cousino, who travelled from North Carolina for the day, won the event going undefeated in 6 rounds of play. Sean Mann came in seconnd losing handily to Craig in the round robin event. Congratulationss to Craig. After the open there was also a U17 event which was won by Miko Mann.

After a whole day of exciting games the favorites met in the final. Wolfgang Leitner (TFC Matterburg) and Alexander Haas (TSC Royal 78), both top ranked players in the world and lucky owners of "Anninger Cup Wild Cards". Wolfgang was clearly the better player that day and able to win 5-0. The trophy for the 3rd place was taken by Christian Haas from TFC Wiener Neustadt.

The Anninger Cup was a big success, we look forward to see more players next year!

Couldson Subbuteo club held a WASPA tournament on friday with a good turnout of 7 players. Gerald Brightwell was the strongest player again, winning his four games to win the tournament. Scott Freeman played well as well, finishing second with three wins. New player Enrico Bonadio, who entered the tournament with his two sons, finished third. Here are the final standings of the evening.
1. Gerald Brightwell
2. Scott Freeman
3. Enrico Bonadio
4. Colin Lindsey
5. Sonny Bonadio
6. Lee Fenton
7. John Bonadio

After months of silence, the Italian club of ASD Subbuteo Club Bari came back to the WASPA circuit last week as they organized a nice tournament with 12 players taking part. There were many close games and some surprising winners but in the end, Giuseppe Triggiani took the honors as he beat Paolo Troccoli in the final (2-1). Luigi Arena and Luigi Quaranta were the semi-finalists.

Sunday, 16 November 2014

10 players met this saturday for the "CAMPEONATO DE PRIMAVERA 2014" in Valdivia, Chile. As always, it was a very international tournament with one representative from New Zealand and two from the USA. Players were dropped in 2 groups of 5 with 2 players qulifiying from each group.In the end, Ignacio López beat Emilia López in the final to claim the (beautiful) trophy. Rodrigo Arias Sergio Vallejos reached the semis. The big fun between players was more important than the results. Congratulations to all.

The Subbuteo Parramatta club hosted its first combined FISTF Challenger/WASPA Tournament on the premises of The Games Cube in downtown Parramatta on Saturday, November 15, 2014. A strong field with many of Australia’s best players assembled alongside the devoted but not quite as skilled and a couple of first-time competitors.

Splitting into four groups with a FISTF ranked top seed in each, the players went at it from the outset. Notable efforts were made by newcomer, Louis Dettre, who, in his first ever tournament, was drawn against two of Australia’s most experienced players – Steve Dettre (his father) and Robert Green who was in the country for a month from his adopted homeland of Sweden. Louis did well to have his father panicking at 0-0 at half time in their opening game before experience won out 2-0. Gordy Dudley slipped into the quarter finals by virtue of his superior goal difference over Daniele Lombardi. Group winner Eliot Kennedy could only manage to put 7 past Gordy, having previously beaten Daniele by 8 unanswered goals, giving Gordy the edge when he and Daniele played out a goalless draw. Peter Thomas was drawn with two of the Italian contingent, easing past Raffaele Lombardi and Giuseppe Tardiota. Raffaele got the upper hand over Giuseppe in their head-to-head match, putting him through to the quarter finals. In the 4 player group, the opening few results meant that Adrian Elmer needed to beat newcomer Andrea Gandolfi by 3 goals to guarantee a place in the quarters, while Steve Diasinos and David Simpson could still both go through depending on their head to head result. In the end, Adrian managed 5 against Andrea after Andrea had put up an excellent first half display to hold him to just one goal, while Steve took the game, and 1st place in the group, with his victory over David.

The quarter final pairings made for a couple of straightforward games and a couple of nailbiters. Peter had a comfortable run against Gordy. Adrian made Robert work hard but the result was never in doubt as Robert dominated and took a 2-0 victory. The two Steves fought out a classic as Steve The Younger, whose game has come on incredibly over the course of the year, pushed Steve The Elder to extra time after a 1-1 regulation time result. In the sudden death period, Steve The Younger gave up possession with his travelling ‘keeper midway through. Steve The Elder managed to get the ball into the shooting zone with his 4th flick, but a great defensive flick from Steve The Younger made Steve The Elder’s shot almost impossible. With the most delicately placed flick, however, Steve The Elder found the millimeters wide gap to get just the right angle and see the ball trickle in the inside of the goal to take the victory. The other quarter final was probably the day’s most exciting game, in spite of a distinct lack of goals. Eliot and Raffaele went at each other for 30 minutes without finding the inside of the goal. The posts and crossbar, yes, but not the back of the net. A further 10 minutes was still not enough to split the two as passions rose further, so shots were called. Both players found their shooting form had left completely as, with a full crowd gathered ’round, every shot of the initial 5 each went either wayward or was saved. As the sudden death phase of the shootout began, Eliot finally found the net to take the upper hand. Raffaele, however, was not about to lay down and drew level with an equally well hit shot from wide. Eliot then slotted his second and the pressure was back on Raffaele. This time, a fingertip save from Eliot’s ‘keeper was to deny Raffaele and Eliot finally took the honours and the last place in the semi-finals.

The repechage games saw Daniele put 7 past Louis who was strapped into his Go-Pro camera. In the other semi, David needed shots to get past Giuseppe after a goal each in regulation time meant they couldn’t be split. In the repechage final, shots were again needed as the evenly pitted pair of Daniele and David cancelled each other out during the 30 minutes of play. In the shootout, Daniele couldn’t find the goal in 4 shots, while David eased 2 of his first 3 past Daniele to take the consolation title.
The main semi-finals were pretty much a non-event for Eliot. Having flown in from Samoa on the morning of the competiton and peaking with two showcase performances in the group stage and a tense, hard-fought victory in the quarters, his body went into Samoa time and Robert walked all over him. A clinical display saw him slot 4 unanswered goals past Eliot to breeze into the final. On the other table, things were getting heated as Peter faced Steve. Raffaele had his hands full refereeing and making judgement calls on the fast paced movements and subtle rule inflections. A goal in each half, however, saw Peter make his way to set up a game between the two players the draw always try to have play out a final – the top two seeds.

After some initial deliberation as to which pitch would be used for the final, Peter and Robert finally got to their showdown. Excellent skills were demonstrated throughout the game. Peter dominated possession with his pin-point flicking, but Robert’s defensive positioning was exemplary, closing gaps time after time. As Peter grew a little frustrated, the odd mistake crept in to his game, giving Robert a bit of breathing space. However, it was a stale mate by the end of the 30 minutes with neither player being able to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Extra time began in a similar manner to the rest of the game, Peter having the better of possession, Robert not allowing goal scoring opportunities. Then, midway through, came the game’s crucial moment. With a classic counter-attack sucker punch, Robert finally managed one of his few shots on goal for the game. This rattled the back of the net and Robert took the title, his first on Australian soil in two decades. Also of note was that Robert defeated all three of the other semi-finalists on his way to the title.

A huge thanks to all who took part. To the new players, Andrea and Louis, we hope you enjoyed it and got a thirst for more (and thanks for the slo-mo clips, Louis). To those who travelled – Raffaele (and fan club) driving up from Berry, Peter again faithfully taking the highway up from Canberra, Giuseppe flying down from Brisbane, David flying up from Melbourne and Eliot who squeezed us in on the back of a tiring work trip (and little sleep) to Samoa. Your presence was greatly appreciated in making a great tournament. And thanks also to the Games Cube for the use of their premises at exceptionally good rates! Subbuteo Parramatta was honoured to host you all and looks forward to the continued growth of the game next year.

Friday, 14 November 2014

Some short news from around the Subbuteo world

the Netherlands: the for second year, the club of GSV de Hyacinth will organize a tournament called "COBEX / Top of Holland Tournament" on May 16, 2015. The format of the tournament will be the same as last year and will count for the WASPA circuit. Interested players can contact Jacob Bijlstra at jacobbijsltra@hotmail.com

England: the Sliders Tour 2015 will be played in a new format with four tournaments in four different cities; here is the poster of the event and it seems it will be very exciting.

Belgium: Vincent Guyaux, who is playing this season for the Maltese club of Bormla SC, has been elected as new president of the Belgian association. This is very positive for the WASPA circuit as Vincent has done a lot for the sport and he's also supporting all kind of tournaments, at high or low level. Congratulations and good luck.

Gregorio and Ignacio

Argentina: a recent meeting between Buenos Aires's Gregorio Caro Solis and Chile's Ignacio Lopez Campbell could not happen without a subbuteo game. It is very positive to see every opportunity to play an international friendly is taken. Nobody reported the name of the winner though :)

The US: the ASA National will take place on August 8 in Chicago. The next day there will also be an International Open under FISTF banner. To make things exciting for all visitors, there will be a WASPA tournament on saturday afternoon. Hopefully some foreign players will be able to make it.

South Africa: things are moving in the South as there are now different active clubs. The Pretoria Flickers are the most active club in the country right now but Johannesburg and Cape Town (Cape Town City TFC) are also on the up and there are good signs coming up from Verulam in the Province of Natal to have a fourth active club (Verulam Vipers TFC). There will be a tournament again in Johannesburg on December 13. The day will be very important as there will be an AGM of the South Africa association after the tourney to put certain permanent structures in place.

Jurong Central SC players

Singapore: the Jurong Central Subbuteo Club has new premises and new goals for the future. These goals are defined as follows:
1. To be the top club in Singapore
2. To mould club players into effective and competitive table football players
3. To be transparent in club management and organise professional and enjoyable table football events for club players
4. To foster a strong relationship with the community by introducing the sport in schools and community events
5. To encourage and participate in local and international tournaments
6. To continuously have club players being highlighted in the top 10 of Singapore Table Football rankings, top 100 of WASPA ranking and top 300 of FISTF ranking.
Good luck to all JCSC players!

Canada: here is a picture of a nucleus in the Tsawassen/South Delta BC league. Jon Rogers, Mark Rogers, Casey Cumisky and Stuart Neely are on the picture

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Jos Ceulemans (left) was also semi-finalist of the FISTF Future tournament in Templeuve on November 11

The latest WASPA tournament held in Hofstade-Zemst on November 3 had a good turnout of 11 entries. As always, the SC Flanders club hosted the event under Swiss system in four sessions. Jos Ceulemans won the event again while Frank Lannoy was 2nd, Stéphane Lambert was 3rd and Diederik Boyen was 4th. This is already Jos's 10th title in the WASPA circuit.

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Stéphane Lambert was finalist while Geoffrey Marain took his 30th WASPA title

We had a great turnout of 16 players for the monthly WASPA tournament of the Templeuve United club. The day was very long as we played a FISTF Future in the morning with 22 entries in the Open category and the final with for SC Temploux's Olivier Dubois. In the afternoon, while most players had already played 4 or 5 games, we started the WASPA tournament with 4 groups of 4 and games of 20 minutes. The top 2 players of each group played then for places 1 to 8 while the others players played for places 9 to 16. Finally Geoffrey Marain took the honors again as he beat Stéphane Lambert in the final. It was more difficult than expected for Geoffrey as he lost a group game to France's Ludovic Midoux and finished second of his group. He beat Vincent Coppenolle in the quarter-final and AS Hennuyer's Benoit Lagneau in the semi.

Ludovic Midoux and Stéphane Lambert after the shots in the semi

Ludovic Midoux lost his semi on shots to Stéphane Lambert. The consolation final saw Logan Adam beating Renald Deloose. Both players were in the same "group of death" with Marain and Midoux in the first round. Well done to all.

Monday, 10 November 2014

The Harrow League had a great day of table football on sunday with a great field of 10 players and a Swiss system with 5 rows of games.

Paul Andreas took the honors after taking 13 points (4 wins and 1 draw) while three players ended with 10 points. Giampaolo Vitulano finally took the second place thanks to the number of goals scored while Rudi Peterschinigg was third and Simon McMurray was fourth. Well done to all the players .

A concoction of broken legs, hospitalizations, car problems and house buying led to a very disappointing small turn out of only 4 players at the latest HCE WASPA event. 8 players were expected then a raft of very late call offs for the reasons above and more, halved the turn out, not even our inflatable penguin fancied a game on Friday!!

4 players meant a round robin event that meant everyone played everyone. Previous HCE WASPA Winner Malc Lees got off to a disastrous start losing 5-0 to Mike Burns. Craig Lynch overcame the returning and ever improving Vince Fitzpatrick with virtually the last flick of the game to win 1-0.

The second round of fixtures had Malc return to scoring form winning 5-2 against Craig while Mike beat Vince 4-0. The last round of the round robin saw Mike finish top without conceding. Some clinical finishing with goals either side of half time gave Mike a 4-0 win against Craig whilst Malc made sure of second place by defeating Vince 4-0.

Due to the poor turnout our venue refused to make us any food meaning there were no tidy pies on offer this week which was very disappointing!

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Saturday 8 November 2014, Pretoria, South Africa:
The 2014 PFC Super Cup attracted a field of seven entries, including Subbuteo debutant Shaheed van Niekerk.
Overall it was a low scoring event with only 12 goals scored from the 21 matches played, but the lack of goal action was compensated for by various closely contested matches where players used contrasting tactics to get the upperhand over their adversaries on the day. Matches were played over a 15min period, with 2 points awarded for a win, and 1 point per draw.
Bevin Reed will be slightly dissapointed with his performance in this event, especially after his impressive run during last month's SILVER CUP event. A special mention must go to debutant, Shaheed van Niekerk who ended the day undefeated with 6 draws and as a result shared 3rd place with the only other undefeated player of the day, Kegan van der Merwe. The table standings will show that these two players shared equal points and equal goals scored / goals conceded on the day !
Justin Thumbran continued to impress - getting 5 points on the day, only suffering a 1-0 loss to the eventual event winner Jayden van der Merwe! The 1-0 loss for Chessray Jooste against Julian van der Merwe in Match 20 surely put a halt to Chessray's surge to the top of the standings. In Match 21, Kegan had to win to tie Jayden & Chessray on 7 points - thereby forcing the event into a 3-way play-off for the title. In that match (Match 21), Kegan scored a fantastic chip shot to take the lead after 6min of play, but Jayden typically stormed back into action and got the equaliser on 14min. The draw was enough to take Jayden back to the top of the standings - a title he really had to work for!
Thanks to all for attending and help making the event a success.

Next event on the PFC Calendar : PFC Copa del Clausura on 6 DECEMBER 2014.

7 players participated in the mini event organised by Vikas.
Players were drawn into two groups with group A comprising of Experience players, Vikas, Nic Tan and Artur Lim while group B was a tough group comprising of past WASPA winners, Den Mulia, Rudy and Kok Wee plus Underdog, Hashim.

2) With only winner of the group progressing to the finals, the games were played in a no holds bar fashion ... fast and furious.

3) In the end Vikas and Rudy qualify tops of their groups. It was the 1st final for Vikas after many years thus making the final a battle between two different generation of players. Both having contrast styles, with Vikas is known for his long range shooting while Rudy, for his fast attacking approach. The game was tense and both had their chances however in the end, Rudy shooting was more clinical and in the end, Rudy won the event.

Five good reasons to organize WASPA tournaments

1. You only need 3 players to have the WASPA status and get ranking points;2. It is always better to play under the banner of an international association instead of playing only friendly games;3. The WASPA will help you to make new friends and meet more different players;4. You can slightly change some of the official rules when you organize a tournament (for instance you can play games of 20 minutes);5. Tournaments are easy to organize and you just need to announce the tournaments a few days in advance to get the WASPA status.

For other nations, candidates are welcome. Clubs interested to join the WASPA circuit are also free to contact us. Applications should be sent to Vincent Coppenolle

To buy Subbuteo

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Philosophy

The philosophy of the WASPA is to make unity between all amateur subbuteo players in the world, to organize tournaments and meetings between players at regional, national and international level.There will be a world ranking organized.Players of every country should have the same importance. There should not be difference between players in or outside Europe. Players from small nations should have the same rights and duties as those from bigger countries.